Day: August 22, 2018

Cider, water, milk, and whiskey! By Melissa Swindell / 12.06.2012 Executive Director The Wren’s Nest Practically everyone in 18th America drank chocolate and tea, but what about cider, water, milk, and whiskey? Well, of course they drank water and milk. The colonies were an idyllic paradise—lush forests, rolling hills, crystal clear streams. Not so much.[…]

Wikimedia Commons Why were the Sons of Liberty not stopped by British troops? What was the outcome? By Dr. John Buescher Historian Introduction The tea was on three privately owned merchant ships. One hundred and fourteen chests were on board the Dartmouth, the first ship to arrive in port. The other two ships, the Eleanor[…]

It can be hard to fathom the society-altering impact the new printed image had when it first appeared in Europe around 1400. By Dr. Alison Stewart Hixson-Lied Professor of Art History University of Nebraska-Lincoln It is hardly too much to say that since the invention of writing there has been no more important invention than[…]

The second nun from Chaucer’s ‘Canterbury Tales’. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) The Second Nun, her prologue, and her tale might be the quietest pilgrim and narrative in the Canterbury Tales. By Dr. Candace Barrington Professor of English Central Connecticut State University Introduction The Second Nun, her prologue, and her tale might be the quietest[…]

Mt Etna, with Catania in the foreground / Photo by BenAveling, Wikimedia Commons Stories were used as an attempt to explain how and why certain phenomena in the world around us came to be. By Tom High / 08.23.2013 Myths are one of humanity’s oldest methods of understanding and responding to the environment. Long before[…]

The Temple to Apollo at Delphi / Photo by Greudin, Wikimedia Commons The history of ancient Greece offers fascinating insights into the possibilities and limitations of human existence. By Dr. Thomas R. Martin Jeremiah W. O’Connor, Jr. Professor of Classics College of the Holy Cross Introduction “Most things in the history of Greece have become[…]